2 Starting Again

"Oh my god," Ye Xiu breathed. "It is you. How… what happened…are you okay?"

"Yes…" Muqiu wanted to explain further, but trailed off, not knowing what to say.

"I'll add Mucheng first," Ye Xiu said, then clicked over to Mucheng's account in his list of contacts.

Lord Grim: Are you free at the moment?

Dancing Rain: Yes. Do you need something?

Lord Grim: Are you alone?

Dancing Rain: Yes

Lord Grim: I'll call you

Ye Xiu added Mucheng to the group video chat, and immediately heard her gasp through his headphones.

"Oh my god…Muqiu? Is it really you?" she said, emotion twinging her voice.

"Yes. It's—I—How are you? …Don't cry, Mucheng. I'm alright. We'll be fine," he said, seeing the tears silently slide down Mucheng's cheeks, trying not to cry himself. "I—I guess I need to explain, although I only learned all of this yesterday. According to Ye Qiu, I was in a coma for eight years after the accident. I don't really know what happened, but he said that it was his fault, and so he has been taking care of me in the hospital. I don't know…"

"Its okay," Ye Xiu said, understanding. "You'll get better, then we'll all be together again, playing Glory. Just like the old days."

"I'm sorry. You say that as if it's been so long. I still feel like it was only yesterday."

"Its alright. You came back. That's all that matters," Mucheng said.

"Its fine. Anyway, I transferred Lord Grim to the tenth server. Start a new character and play with me?" Ye Xiu asked.

"Lord Grim? Why? Is there even a point?"

"Oh yeah…There's a new cross-server, the Heavenly Domain. Lord Grim should be able to level up there."

"Boss is calling me. Talk to you later," Mucheng said, and left.

"Well, I'll get you an account card. Are your hands okay?" Ye Xiu asked, opening a sensitive topic now that Muqiu's sister wasn't here to worry about him.

"I…I feel…I don't …"

"It's okay. Just practice. You'll get back to where you were before. Well, bye for now. Start your own QQ account so that you can contact me later. I assume the hospital has computers you can use?"

"Okay, talk to you later. Bye." Muqiu said, and ended the video chat.

~

Ye Xiu got up to go look for Chen Guo. "Boss Chen…" he said innocently.

"What?" she said, barely covering a scowl as she wondered what despicable schemes this guy had thought up for her to deal with this time.

"I need to take off a couple days to visit a friend in the hospital," he said.

"Oh…I guess we can work that out. Tang Rou seems to stay up all night anyway sine she started playing Glory," she said, biting back a snide comment about him actually having friends. But of course he did. Everyone did. Even if he never seemed to do anything with them.

~

Ye Xiu knocked on the door of the hospital room, the came in. It was obviously Ye Xiu from his disheveled but comfortable look. Muqiu turned off the TV that he had been apathetically flipping through channels on, after the Glory one had switched to a commercial break. Commercials of, of course, Zhou Zekai. But Su Muqiu didn't know him. He greeted Ye Xiu with a smile. "So you're famous now," he noted.

"Oh. Yeah. So I am," Ye Xiu responded, pulling an account card out of his pocket and handing it over to Muqiu. He helped him move his wheelchair over to the room's computer, still unable to walk due to the weakness of his muscles from inactivity.

Muqiu plugged in the account card and created a character. "Autumn Tree again?" he asked Ye Xiu.

Ye Xiu shrugged, uncaring over something as irrelevant as a character name.

Muqiu continued, chatting with Ye Xiu as he did the easy beginner quests. When he got to level 5 and could run dungeons, Ye Xiu went downstairs to log onto Lord Grim and play with him. This obviously made Green Forest go much faster, and they got several materials to use for the Myriad Manifestations Umbrella. They talked as they played.

"So no one ever told me the pro scene had become so developed," Muqiu commented.

"Yeah, you know the Alliance that we were going to join when you…er, when the accident happened?" Ye Xiu asked.

"Did you just almost say when I died? I'm not dead!" Muqiu bantered.

"I know that! We thought you had…I didn't mean..."

"Wow, you don't even love your friend enough to find out if he's really dead!"

"We were told by the hospital…We've been visiting your grave every year."

Muqiu burst out laughing. "Really? That's hilarious! I even have a grave! Can I come with you next year?"

~

A few hours later, Su Mucheng's Cleansing Mist came online. She and Muqiu added each other as friends in-game, then she joined the other two to level. As soon as Autumn Tree was five levels below Lord Grim and Cleansing Mist, they dragged him to the higher leveled leveling areas, since they weren't gaining much experience from the lower leveled areas. It was fine, since they were basically carrying him anyway.

"So why did you retire? You're not really that old, are you?" Muqiu asked.

"No, it wasn't really working out with the team," Ye Xiu said. "But I'll come back, with you."

"He basically got kicked out," Mucheng interjected. "Tao Xuan became a greedy businessman and didn't want him because he wouldn't do advertising."

"That's horrible! He's not-He wasn't the type to do that," Muqiu argued.

Mucheng continued, "Well, he is now, apparently. He—"

"You shouldn't talk trash about your boss, Mucheng," Ye Xiu interrupted.

"What? He's not even here!"

"Exactly, so he can't defend himself and get distracted from the game, so it does us no good," Ye Xiu explained calmly.

"You're just saying this because it's convenient. You just don't want anyone to know or make a big deal out of your situation."

"You know I don't need you to fight my battles for me."

"But Muqiu has a right to know! Were you planning on just not telling him?"

"I was—It doesn't matter, anyway."

A while later, Muqiu logged off, saying he should rest.